Have you ever taken database performance metrics, downloaded them to Excel, and created charts and graphs so that trends became more clear?

Of course we all know management likes pictures to convey information, but it helps us techies as well to be able to visualize how performance is trending over time. Sometimes we get so caught up in the daily operation of our systems that, even if you’re watching the system daily, small increases over time can add up and become issues before you know it.

Not to mention, sometimes it isn’t until you look at data on a graph that patterns become visible.

(I’m not being specific about *which* data to look for, because every system and database platform is unique, and you really need to understand yours and how they’re used to determine which data are the most important to keep an eye on.)

The treasure you can find

SAP have developed Solution Manager with the capability of storing data in BI cubes, and this is the perfect place to report on the performance of systems in your landscape. And with the Database Performance Warehouse, part of the DBA Cockpit, you can get detailed data and charts to support reporting on the database performance metrics that are important to you.

Enabling this functionality is simple, and I’ll show you how to do this now.

The map to guide you

First step is to log in to Solution Manager, and go to transaction ‘solman_setup.’ From there, click on Managed System Configuration > Configure Technical System.

Select a database from the drop-down menu, and validate the populated information, or change:

Enter any information requested, then click Next:

The configuration should now be deployed automatically, including the structures in the target database, and the collectors to retrieve the data and populate the BI cubes in the Solution Manager system. If all goes well, you should see the following screen, as I did:

The next step is to let the collectors collect some data so that you can display it. Once that happens, we’ll open up the DBA Cockpit again with transaction ‘dbacockpit.’ Select the database you’ve just deployed the configuration to, make sure you get connected, then navigate to Performance > Performance Warehouse > Reporting.

In my system with NetWeaver 7.0 Enhancement Package 2, I get the following screen (NW 7.0 EhP1 will open a new browser window, but EhP2 opens in the sapgui for me):

So from here on out, all of the graphs are based on embedded BI queries that may or may not exist for you, depending on your database platform. The good news is, if you don’t see the charts you want to see, you can create your own simply by using the standard BI query development tools to create a new query, or by modifying an existing query.

Here’s one for Database I/O read and write times:

And of course, as these are embedded BEx queries, all of the standard filter and drill-down capabilities exist by right-clicking on the data:

Query Properties:

We have reached our destination, but this is only the beginning of the journey

So that’s basically it. For those on an Oracle platform, these charts may be very similar to what Oracle Enterprise Manager offers, though OEM did not, last I worked with it, offer any sort of analytical capabilities on that data. I am on the DB2 platform now though, and IBM does not offer any free server-based tools like OEM that are always watching your databases and monitoring performance. I do not know what SQL Server or MaxDB have to offer, so I cannot comment there.

The good thing about Solution Manager’s database performance warehouse is, if you support multiple database platforms, whether as a consultant for various clients, or whether you have multiple platforms in your customer environment, this allows some standardization across those platforms for database performance reporting.

So that’s it, I hope this helps, and please comment below if you have experiences with database performance warehouse to share, or questions you need answers to.

Thanks, Tom. Of course, this doesn’t require Solution Manager 7.1 – my system is currently 7.0 EhP1. So if you’ve got time to kill prior to your 7.1 upgrade, you can pass your time enabling the database performance warehouse. 🙂

Tom, no, it’s for all database platforms. I’ll have to find it, but there is a deck from SAP that shows how many standard reports are available in the performance warehouse for each database platform. Oracle was the only one at zero, but that number was to increase with Solution Manager 7.1. I was told by someone at SAP that you could enable it for Oracle, but there simply were no standard reports, but perhaps that is not the case.

My solman system is SAP EHP 1 for SAP Solution Manager 7.0. I couldn’t find the Performance Warehouse in DBACOCKpit as you have shown in the blog. IS there any configuration required. I have integrated systems into DBACOCKPIT.Reply to ranjith.jacob@scotts.com